GOURMET TRAVEL MAURITIUS ISLAND - Duff's Suitcase · 33 GOURMET TRAVEL MAURITIUS T he sky behind the colonial mansion was overcast. Surrounded by 109 wooden doors, 176 years of history

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GOURMET TRAVEL MAURITIUS

The sky behind the colonial mansion was overcast. Surrounded by 109 wooden doors, 176 years of history

and furniture from the Dutch East India company, we tucked into spicy beef curry with peanut sauce, coconut chutney and steaming basmati rice.

Fat drops of rain started to fall as we sipped vanilla tea and chatted to the owner of Maison Eureka, a restored mansion backed by the Moka moun-tains. Jacques de Maroussem, a sixth-generation Franco-Mauritian, told us about his 15 minutes of fame as a murderous Punjabi father in a 2007 Bollywood music video shot in the light-fi lled hallways.

It’s interesting locals like him that you’ll encounter if you explore beyond the palm trees and perfect beaches of

Mauritius. Delve a little deeper and you’ll discover colourful Hindu temples, emerald-green tea plantations, spice trees, grand mansions and winding coastal roads adorned with laden washing lines instead of hotels.

Mine was a very specifi c mission: I’d set out with photographer Russell Smith to explore Mauritius through its food – what a country eats can often tell you far more about culture, history and people than its museums. As it turns out, the island’s culinary tradition is as complex as it is delicious and the story of Mauritian cuisine has evolved over 250 years, bringing together three continents.

The recipes of the French settlers, who came to the island in 1715, were modifi ed to adapt to local ingredients.

These were combined with cooking techniques and ingredients brought in by slaves from the African mainland and Madagascar (who formed Creole culture and language). The food culture changed again when slavery was abolished and immigrants from India and China introduced their dishes and spices. This means that an island a tenth of the size of Kruger National Park has a gastronomic diversity you don’t get in many bigger countries.

You could visit Mauritius and just eat street food – the island offers a smorgasbord of roadside eats that cover the breadth of its culinary infl uences, served from the backs of motorbikes and brightly painted stalls set up along the road and in beach parking lots. We ate as much of it as

Incredible food, bustling markets, fascinating culture and colourful characters: Mauritius offers far more than package holidays and brochure-perfect beaches, as Sarah Duff discovered on a culinary trip around the Indian Ocean island. Photographs by Russell Smith.

OPPOSITE PAGE AND ABOVE: Idyllic beaches such as this one at La Pirogue resort in Flic en Flac, western Mauritius, fringe the island and it’s easy to spend your whole holiday here. But if you venture off your lounger you’ll discover a wonderful world of food and culture. You don’t even have to necessarily go far: forgo umbrella-adorned cocktails next to the pool and sip from fresh coconuts bought at retro-styled beach vans that also sell pickled fruit, which Mauritians douse in sugar and chilli.

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we could, tasting gâteaux piments (chilli bites), pickled fruits, samoosas, deep-fried aubergine fritters and roti chaud (curry-filled flat breads), all with a hefty dose of chilli on the side. Mauritius’ street food scenes reminded me of India, but without the mayhem, sacred cows and dodgy hygiene.

On a wander through bustling China- town in Port Louis, the incongruous home of the island’s biggest mosque and stuffed with hardware stores and shops selling golden bric-a-brac, we sampled bowls of mine frites (fried noodles) topped with spring onions and copious fresh chilli, as well as boulet (vegetable and fish dumplings in fish broth). Stall proprietor Arthur Kwettien Ng Chu Kong noticed my perspiring face and offered me a bowl of quivering la mousse Chinoise (black herbal jelly); tastier than it sounds, it was the perfect refresher in the afternoon humidity and antidote for my burning mouth.

Street food like this is eaten by all Mauritians, from poor to wealthy, but undoubtedly their favourite bite-on-the-run – and the widely acknowledged unofficial national dish – is dholl puri (fried thin bread stuffed with ground yellow split peas, bean curry, vegetable pickles or chutney, served in pairs and wrapped in paper). While you’ll find dholl

puris all over the island, Dewa & Sons in Rose Hill is, according to locals and homesick expats, undisputedly the best. We scoffed ours as a mid-morning snack, washed down with orange Fanta, savouring the soft curry texture, the tart

pickles and nuttiness of the ground split peas. At around R10 a pair, it’s probably the tastiest, most budget-friendly meal on the island.

Eating street food allows you to meet fellow diners, whether it’s while dipping your samoosa in a pot of mazavaroo (fresh chilli paste) or devouring mine frites while sharing a bench with city workers at lunchtime.

Moving away from the street to small family-run restaurants (tables d’hôtes) allows you to meet even more of the people behind the food. Escale Créole is one of these charming spots, with a peaceful garden setting in the quiet inland village of Moka.

The warm and chatty Marie-Christine Forget and her mother Majo, clad in matching tropical-print outfits, have been running the restaurant for almost two decades. Every day they serve up a feast of Creole favourites such as rougaille saucisses (tomato stew made with pork sausages), cangarille (cab-bage and salted fish) and a slow-cooked chicken curry. They’re willing to share a few of their family recipes, some of which stretch back generations, but others remain firmly guarded secrets and you’ll have to be content just to buy their delicious rhum arrangé (flavoured rum) infused with lemon-

grass, prunes, vanilla, orange and cinnamon. Desserts are prepared with fruits from their garden: banana tart, glacé papaya and coconut cakes make up a spread reflective of the tropical bounty of Mauritius.

Thanks largely to rich volcanic soils, island chefs like Marie-Christine and Majo have an abundant pantry of delicious fruits and farm-fresh veggies at their disposal, as well as seafood and venison. There’s nowhere better to see this produce than in a food market such as the colourful one in the capital city of Port Louis.

Here you can immerse yourself in stalls selling coconuts, baskets of jewel- like red chillies, towers of glowing pommes d’amour tomatoes, bunches of aromatic herbs and shiny purple aubergines still beaded with water from the farm irrigation. Smells of smoky incense, bananas and faint traces of earth hang in the air. Everything on sale is super sized, from patty pans as big as your hand to marrows like cricket bats and pumpkins you could bath a baby in.

OPPOSITE PAGE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Get a taste of the many flavours of Creole food ‒ a mixture of African and European influences developed by slaves on the island ‒ such as chicken curry and sausage stew at Escale Créole, run by Marie-Christine Forget and her mother Majo; the fresh produce on offer at Mauritius’ many food markets, such as these ruby-coloured beetroots, is the stuff of still-life paintings; Arthur Kwett-ien Ng Chu Kong sells popular Mauritian-Chinese street food such as boulet (dumplings) in Port Louis’ Chinatown.

MAURITIAN-CREOLE FOOD You’ll find Creole food wherever African slaves were taken to, including New Orleans, the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean Mascarene islands of Réunion, Mauritius and Rodrigues. Creole food is different in each place as the style of cooking developed from locally avail-able ingredients and culinary traditions of the slaves.

In Mauritius, the base of Creole food is onion, garlic, thyme and pommes d’amour (small, flavourful tomatoes), with additions of fresh curry leaves and spices such as cinnamon. Staples include rougaille (tomato stew) with meat, fish or vegetables, fish vindaye (cooked with mustard, vinegar, garlic and ginger) with rice, cooked lentils and always complemented with fresh chutneys (think zingy coconut and fresh tomato) and vegetable pickles.

As they say in Mauritian Creole, ‘Mari bon!’ (delicious).


An island a tenth of the size of Kruger National Park has a gastronomic diversity you don’t get in many big countries

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Unless you’re self-catering, as a tourist you’re likely to buy souvenirs such as vanilla from the markets to take home, but despite what market touts will tell you, the vanilla sold here is generally poor quality and mostly imported from nearby Madagascar.

There’s only one place where you can buy Mauritian-grown vanilla, and that’s at St Aubin, an old sugar estate in the south. You’ll find a rare Tahitian variety of vanilla at Château de Labourdonnais, an estate complete with a gracious lavender-and-white 19th-century mansion, which looks straight out of Gone with the Wind. You can’t buy the vanilla from the estate, but you can sample it at the restaurant, La Table du Château. After feasting on seafood gratin and dorado on steamed bredes (green

leafy vegetables), I ate the best crème brûlée of my life, undoubtedly enhanced by the Tahitian vanilla.

The crème brûlée sparked an interest in other local ingredients and led us to explore Pamplemousses Botanical Gardens – originally established as gov- ernor François Mahé de Labourdonnais’ vegetable garden – in search of the main component of Mauritius’ famous millionaire’s salad.

Guide Salonee Chutto led us past fruit bats, flowering talipot palms that bloom only every 50 years, and fragrant spice trees imported from Madagascar and Asia, to the white palms, which are also known as millionaire’s palms.

ISLAND TIPPLEUnlike neighbouring Réunion, Mauritius isn’t known for its rum. Until a few years ago there was a ban on small-scale rum production, but laws recently changed and artisanal rum distilleries (called rhum agricoles) are allowed to produce the booze with pure sugar-cane juice. There are three artisanal distilleries on the island: St Aubin, Château de Labourdonnais and Chamarel. Chamarel’s rum has won a couple of international awards and its flagship rum, which is matured in oak for three years, is smooth and soft in the mouth and tastes faintly of vanilla. Then there’s the double-distilled 50 per cent proof rum (with a strong aroma of ripe banana), which is unique to Mauritius and very rare as there are only four places in the world that pro-duce double-distilled rum. A visit and tasting costs Rs350 (R100) a person. Chamarel’s restaurant, L’Alchimiste, makes use of the tipple in dishes such as wild boar braised with rum and served with yam puree and deliciously decadent rum-soaked chocolate cake. Tel +230-483-7980, www.rhumeriedechamarel.com.

These indigenous trees are cut open after seven years to extract a small arm-sized heart, which feeds only three people in a salad. Considering the amount of time and plant growth that go into producing the palm hearts, I found it bland, crunchy but with no particular flavour. In fact, I felt sorry for the palms.

Fortunately, dead palms were the only disappointing thing we ate on the trip. In one short week, we found the best dim sum this side of Hong Kong, devoured curries to rival those of the sub-continent, drank from coconuts on the beach as the sun set over the Indian Ocean, sipped award-winning, French oak-aged rum, swigged strawberry microbrewery beer, discovered that coconut jam and a freshly baked buttery

croissant make the best breakfast ever, and learnt to eat chilli with just about everything, as Mauritians do.

Culinary travelling allowed us to explore an island that most tourists don’t get to see; it’s much more alluring than azure waters and cocktails by the pool. We connected with the warm people behind the food, and each dish we ate allowed us to peel back the layers of history.

Sure, you can go to Mauritius and spend your holiday in the sea, but if you venture outside of your resort – even for a day – you’ll discover an island that you probably didn’t know existed.


OPPOSITE PAGE: Get a taste of Mauritian-Chinese food by making mine frites at home: boil egg noodles until almost cooked, drain and add a splash of sesame oil. Heat peanut oil in a wok and add sliced garlic and the noodles. Stir-fry

until cooked, then add dark soy sauce and pepper. Top with chopped spring onions and sliced fresh chilli.


Everything on sale is super sized, from patty pans as big as your hand to marrows like cricket bats and pumpkins you could bath a baby in


Where to eat overleaf

Eating street food, such as mine frites (fried noodles) in Port Louis’ Chinatown, while sharing a public bench is the best way to meet locals and practise your French

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OPPOSITE PAGE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: In just about every Mauritian town you’ll find markets selling fruit and veggies straight from the island’s farms; you could spend hours wandering the bustling lanes of Port Louis’ market, learning the names of weird-looking produce such as chouchou (a green pear-shaped fruit); like most Mauritian dishes, dholl puri has a story behind it: derived from Indian paratha bread, Indian immigrants added bean curry and pickles to make what is now the nation’s unofficial national dish; don’t come to Mauritius on a diet as deep-fried snacks such as these beignets de pain (fried breads) are a favourite street food.

Eat hereROADSIDE NOSHSome of the best spots for street vendors are Grand Baie and Flic en Flac beaches, in and around the Port Louis market, near the Quatre-Bornes market (Thursdays and Sundays) and in Port Louis’ Chinatown. If you’re hesitant to try street food for hygiene reasons, stick to busy stalls where food is cooked in front of you.

CENTRALGet the best dholl puris on the island at Dewa & Sons in Rose Hill. Order take-aways a few days before leaving and they’ll be packed to last a couple of weeks – per-fect if you develop an addiction during your stay. Tel +230-464-5646.

First Restaurant in Port Louis CBD, near Chinatown, is filled with Chinese diners (always a good sign) and has an extensive menu of Cantonese dishes with Mauritian twists, such as the addition of sea cucumber, as well as daily dim sum specials. It’s particularly busy for Sunday lunches, so book ahead. Tel +230-212-0685.

Dragon Vert in Quatre-Bornes gets the thumbs up from Chinese-food-loving locals. Tel +230-424-4564.

With two branches in Vacoas and Flic en Flac, Ah Yoon is a popular meet-and-eat place for teens. ‘Ah Yoon’s cheap noodle dishes and meatballs make it a perfect budget-friendly eatery,’ says Mauritian expat Nakkiran Sunassee. Tel +230-453-9099.

For delicious Indian sweets such as ladoo and barfi, head to Bombay Sweets Mart in Port Louis. Tel +230-212-1628.

Locals recommend Happy Rajah in Quatre-Bornes for its Indian-Mauritian food, in particular the vindaloo and fish dishes. Tel +230-427-1400.

La Table du Château in Mapou is one of Mauritius’ best fine-dining restaurants outside of a resort. Take in glorious views of the magnificently restored Château de Labourdonnais as you tuck into gourmet Mauritian food with a Mediterranean twist,

such as tandoori prawns with minted cucumber and crispy duck leg with bread-fruit gratin. Chef Fabio de Poli sources the best ingredients he can find and they’re often unusual such as coconut heart, which he serves with sour cream and pan-fried scallops. Tel +230-266-7172.

Book ahead for a lunch at table d’hôte Escale Créole in Moka, where you’ll feast on home-cooked Creole dishes in a lush tropical garden. Tel +230-433-1641, [email protected], www.escalecreolenet.

Maison Eureka offers a set menu for lunch and dinner on the veranda of a beau-tifully preserved 1830s mansion in the hills

of Moka. Expect samoosas, Creole curries with lentils and chutneys, and vanilla ice cream with toasted coconut. Tel +230-433-8477, www.maisoneureka.com.

SOUTHLe Chamarel Restaurant has one of the best views on the island: an expansive panorama of the southwest coast from its perch high up in Chamarel, near the Seven Coloured Earths. It serves typical Mauritian dishes such as octopus curry with green papaya and coconut chutney. My favourites were the cassava goujons (deep fried sticks of cassava) and farata topped with bredes

LUX Belle MareMaison Eureka

Kenville 19

LUX Le Morne

Andréa Lodge

Auberge de St Aubin

L’Exil Lodge

Anahita

Mahébourg

Souillac

Riviére des Anguilles

Bois Chéri

Bel Air

Centre de-Flacq

Trou d’Eau Douce

Le Morne Brabant

Gorges de la Riviere Noire

Savanne Range

M A U R I T I U S

Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport

Tamarin

Chamarel

Vacoas Curepipe

Rose HillQuatre-Bornes

Moka

Flic en Flac

Port Louis

Grand Baie

Mapou

Pereybere

Pamplemousses Botanical Gardens

I N D I A N O C E A N

0 5 10 15km

Order take-away dholl puris a few days before leaving and they’ll be packed to last a couple of weeks

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(steamed greens), tomato and mozzarella – the Mauritian version of pizza. Tel +230-483-6421, www.lechamarelrestaurant.com.

In Souillac in the far south, you’ll find Chez Rosy le Gris Gris, a colourful, friendly eatery that serves Mauritian-Creole and Chinese food. It’s famed for its octopus vindaye (a Creole dish made with mustard and curry leaves). Owner and chef Rosy Gounden’s banana flambé is another popular dish. Tel +230-625-4179.

EASTChez Tino, near the Trou d’Eau Douce public beach, is known for seafood dishes such as grilled fish and calamari. Get a table upstairs on the balcony, with a great view of the bay. Tel +230-480-2769.

An alternative to the beach scene (although it’s hard to tire of the turquoise water and pretty beaches), Resto Sept is on a quiet road near Trou d’Eau Douce. It’s laid-back and serves snacky food such as baguettes, along with Creole and Chinese dishes. The best options on the menu are the seafood dishes and I recommend the Indian-style calamari with green sauce and the calamari rougaille. Tel +230-480-2766.

WESTSet in sugar cane fields near Flic en Flac, Domaine Anna is a large restaurant that caters as well for wedding parties as it does for intimate tables of two. It’s particu-larly romantic at night, with lanterns and candles flickering across ponds around

the tables. It’s known for its Chinese and Mauritian seafood dishes. Try the tuna carpaccio, sizzling calamari in black pepper and camarons (freshwater prawns) cooked in rum and Chinese barbecue sauce. I’m sure the other dishes on the menu are just as good (the lobster flambéed in whisky sounded delicious). Tel +230-453-9650, www.domaineanna.net.

NORTHCoolen Chez Ram Restaurant in Grand Baie is recommended by locals and tourists alike for its Mauritian seafood dishes, in particular the lobsters, red snapper and crab. It’s known for its friendly service and chatty owner, as well as the unpretentious atmosphere. Tel +230-263-8569.

ABOVE LEFT: The queues at Dewa & Sons, renowned for its dholl puris, are a constant as locals flock to the roadside restaurant for their fix. ABOVE RIGHT: From street food to haute cuisine: learn to make Mauritian dishes such as palm heart salad and grilled prawns at the swanky Anahita resort. OPPOSITE PAGE: Above the bustling streets of downtown Port Louis, First Restaurant is a local favourite. It has an extensive menu, with 20 daily dim sum specials including Chinese sushi and chicken feet.


Sink your chopsticks into First Restaurant’s dim sum specials, such as beef and

ginger dumplings

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Do this 1 Ever since sugar cane was first cultivated

on the island in the 17th century, Mauritius’ economy has revolved around the plant. The best place to understand this his-tory is at l’Aventure du Sucre, an interactive museum in a former sugar mill. Afterwards you can taste 15 sugar varieties. Restaurant Le Fangourin offers gourmet Mauritian food, such as sea bass cooked in turmeric butter and sugar-laden desserts such as tiramisu. The visit costs Rs350 (R100) a person. Tel +230-243-7900, www.aventuredusucre.com.

2 The Flying Dodo, at the Bagatelle shopping centre just outside of Port

Louis, brews black stout, strawberry beer and, my favourite, maërzen (an amber brew with a malty flavour), among others. Do a tour and tasting – and hop fanatics can try a relaxing 30-minute beer bath – followed by tapas such as gâteaux piments stuffed with peanut butter, and beer-infused dishes such as blackcurrant beer-bomb pudding. Tel +230-468-8810, www.flyingdodo.com.

3 The Bois Chéri tea estate is postcard-pretty: the Art Deco-style factory smells

wonderfully of brewing tea and is surround-ed by emerald fields overlooking the south-ern coastline. You can visit the museum and factory, but the undeniable highlight is a tea tasting – the vanilla, mint and coconut options are amazing – accompanied by tea-infused treats which include calamari cooked in green tea and papaya panna cotta with tea jelly. A tour with a tasting costs Rs400 (R114) a person. Tel +230-617-9109.

4 Tour the restored house and orchards at Château de Labourdonnais and

grab a bite at the La Table du Château restaurant. Don’t miss out on a tasting of the rhum arranges, which are particularly good with unexpected flavours such as kumquat. Tel +230-266-9533, www.unchateaudanslanature.com.

5 St Aubin is a 19th-century sugar estate with a working factory, a

fragrant vanilla house and plantation, and an agricole rum distillery. Do a guided

visit and rum tasting (the coffee flavour was my favourite), then tuck into dishes cooked with the estate’s vanilla (try the crème brûlée). Tours cost Rs450 (R128) a person or Rs950 (R271) including lunch. Tel +230-626 -1513, www.saintaubin.mu.

6 Smell imported spice trees and learn about coconut palms and other indige-

nous and tropical plants at the famous Pamplemousses Botanical Gardens. Hire a guide, as you won’t have an idea of what you’re looking at otherwise. Entrance is Rs200 (R57) and it costs Rs50 (R15) a per-son in a guided group of five to 10 people.

7 Go shopping at one of Mauritius’ vibrant food markets (or just take

photos; market vendors are very friendly and obliging). There’s one in almost every town and my favourite was the large fruit and veg market at Flacq (Wednesdays and Sundays). With not a tourist or sarong-seller in sight, it was a bustling scene of bartering and chatting.

ABOVE LEFT: Tea was first brought to Mauritius by a French priest in the 18th century. Now it’s grown at the Bois Chéri estate, on the southern end of Mauritius, and made into brews flavoured with vanilla, coconut and fruit. Stock up from the estate’s shop as you can’t buy this delicious tea in South Africa. ABOVE RIGHT: Mauritius is covered in rolling fields of sugar cane, which has been grown there for 300 years. Learn about how the history of the island is intertwined with this crop at l’Aventure du Sucre museum near Pamplemousses Botanical Gardens.

Travel planner overleaf

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Getting thereAir Mauritius fl ies out of Johannesburg 10 times a week, with additional fl ights during peak times. There are three direct fl ights from Cape Town a week. Return fl ights from Joburg start at R5 900 and those from Cape Town start at R7 900. Tel 011-601-3900, email [email protected], www.airmauritius.com.

Many travellers opt for package holidays, as they combine accommodation and fl ights at a cheaper rate than if you bought them separately. Browse for packages on websites such as www.travelstart.co.za.

Getting aroundHiring a car is your best bet if you want to explore. There are a number of car-hire out-fi ts at the airport and around the island and rental costs from R600 a day. Travelling by public bus is fairly easy and reliable; private taxis are widely available but expensive.

Stay hereMany self-catering villas and apartments offer cooks, who will shop with you in mar-

kets and/or prepare meals. Alternatively, take a half-board package at a resort so you have the freedom to eat out for lunch.

The island’s northwest, in particular Grand Baie, is the most developed, with many resorts, hotels and self-catering spots, as well as restaurants, bars and shops. Flic en Flac on the west coast is also popular among tourists, with budget accommoda-tion options and the best sunsets. The southwest coast, under the looming Le Morne Brabant rock, is beautiful, but with fewer places to stay.

Kenville 19 in Pereybere is a six-sleeper self-catering townhouse in a residential complex with a pool. It’s a short drive to the shops and restaurants of Grand Baie, but removed from the tourist hordes. It’s across the road from a small beach and Pereybere Beach is a short walk away. There’s a fully equipped kitchen, air conditioning, small patio and free wireless internet. A cook is available to make lunch and dinner. From €110 (R1 210) a night for the house. Cell +33-624-095-299, email [email protected], www.privat-mauritius.com.

The Auberge de Saint Aubin, a

century-old Creole-style house on the Saint Aubin sugar estate, sleeps nine in four bedrooms and has a pool in a quiet garden setting. A restaurant in a colonial mansion is a short stroll away. From €65 (R715) a night for the house. Tel +230-626-1513, email [email protected], www.saintaubin.mu.

Maison Eureka in Moka is romantic and removed from the resort crowds. Under a sprawling mango tree, two charming 19th- century cottages each have a bedroom and bathroom, as well as a fridge and micro-wave. St Georges sleeps two and Simone sleeps two adults and a child. B&B from Rs3 450 (R985) a cottage a night. Tel +230-433-8477, email [email protected], www.maisoneureka.com.

If you’re not a laze-on-the-beach type, stay at Andréa or l’Exil. The two country lodges have 10 double rooms each and specialise in active holidays. Andréa, near Souillac, offers expansive views of the churning sea from its isolated cliffside perch, while l’Exil attracts nature lovers with its location in Combo Forest and near a waterfall. Both offer mountain bikes, hiking trips and guided quad biking. From Rs2 310

(R660) a person a night, including break-fast, dinner and some activities. Tel +230-471-0555, email [email protected], www.relaisdeslodges.com.

A new chain on the island, LUX Resorts, offers a fun take on typical beach resorts, with ice-cream parlours, outdoor fi lm screen-ings, pop-up restaurants and honesty bars, along with stylishly minimalist décor and design. LUX Belle Mare on the east coast is popular with families, while LUX Le Morne on the underdeveloped southwest coast draws couples and honeymooners. Both have excellent food; aside from themed buffet nights and Mediterranean cuisine, you’ll get a taste of authentic Mauritian food with dishes such as slow-cooked veni-son in red wine with spices and octopus salad. Learn to make farata, rougaille and curry with a private cooking lesson and take the weekly bicycle tours to a local village, where you can have tea and snacks with a local – you’ll quickly burn off those calories with activities such as waterskiing, beach volleyball and yoga. Both resorts have great spas. Half-board rates are from €254 (R2 794) a person a night sharing at LUX Belle Mare, and €267 (R2 937) a person a

night sharing at LUX Le Morne. Tel +230-698-9800, [email protected], www.luxislandresorts.com.

Anahita is an upmarket resort with immaculate grounds, stylish suites and pri-vate villas with pools and butlers. Golfers are in for a treat as the neighbouring Four Seasons Golf Course, designed by Ernie Els, is one of the best on the island. There are four restaurants, a candy shop and a patis-serie to choose from, as well as larney picnic lunches on the nearby île Aux Cerfs. For Mauritian cuisine with a gourmet twist and strong Asian infl uence, Origine has superb food, such as palm heart gratin with sea urchin cappuccino and soya-steamed parrot fi sh with caramelised ginger (do a cooking demonstration with the chefs to learn how to create these delicious dishes). Costs from Rs13 884 (R3 966) for a one-bedroom suite, Rs21 774 (R6 221) for a two-bedroom suite, and Rs75 180 (R21 480) for a four-bedroom villa that sleeps eight and comes with a but-ler. A special family offer runs from May to

September 2013: pay the one-bedroom suite rate for a two-bedroom suite. Tel +230-402-2200, email [email protected], www.anahita.mu.

For more places to stay, go to accommodation.getaway.co.za.

When to goMauritius is warm year-round, but the best months are May to early December. Avoid the peak cyclone months of January and February if you want to dive or do water sports. Go outside of the December and Easter holidays to get better rates.

Need to knowSouth Africans don’t need a visa for Mauritius. The water isn’t drinkable; take water purifi cation tablets or drink bottled water. The currency is Mauritian rupees (R1 is roughly Rs3,5). There are ATMs all over the island and you can change money at the airport.


Seven nights for two people at LUX Belle

Mare worth R31 000, with Getaway and Island Light Holidays.

The prize includes breakfasts and dinners, most land and watersport activities and hotel transfers from the airport. It excludes flights to Mauritius. This prize is valid until 30 September 2013.

SMS Mauritius followed by your answer, name, email and postal addresses to 32697 (SMSs cost R1,50) or enter online at competitions.getaway.co.za/competitions. The closing date is 26 February 2013. Q: On which side of the island is LUX Belle Mare?See competition rules on page 148.

Island Light Holidays offers packages to Mauritius, the Maldives and Réunion with LUX Resorts. A seven-night holiday in Mauritius, including flights and departure tax, is from R14 189 a person. Tel 011-770-7821, email [email protected], www.islandlightholidays.co.za.

TRAVEL PLANNER

GET MORE ONLINE www.getaway.co.zaFor a complete foodie guide to Mauritius, as well as Mauritian recipes such as Creole

chicken curry and coconut cakes read Sarah’s blogs at blog.getaway.co.za (search for Mauritius).

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Auberge de Saint Aubin Anahita LUX Belle Mare

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GOURMET TRAVEL MAURITIUS ISLAND - Duff's Suitcase · 33 GOURMET TRAVEL MAURITIUS T he sky behind the colonial mansion was overcast. Surrounded by 109 wooden doors, 176 years of history